To provide feedback on the Boulder Valley School District's academic calendar options, go to BVSDListens.com by 4 p.m. Dec. 21.

Boulder Valley's current academic calendar, with classes starting in mid-August and the first semester ending before winter break, is well loved by many high school parents.

But elementary parents, whose students often are in hot classrooms in buildings without air conditioning, see a late-August or post-Labor Day start as the best solution.

Given the split, several parents attending a Thursday community meeting on the calendar suggested the district take another look at starting high schools two weeks earlier than elementary and middle schools. The district previously rejected that option because parents, in a recent survey, listed keeping schools on the same schedule as a priority.

Leigh Campbell-Hale, vice president of the Boulder Valley Education Association and a Fairview High teacher, said the current calendar is "perfect" for high school students, but "horrible" for everybody else.

"Everybody's got reasonable demands," she said.

Reacting to parent complaints about sweltering classrooms in August, the district has developed three calendar options for the next school year that all start later than the current mid-August date. Two of the calendars place the first day of school in the last week of August, while the third pushes it back to the week after Labor Day.

There was no consensus among the dozen parents at Thursday's meeting.

For some, the priority was starting later, keeping elementary kids out of hot classrooms and better aligning the schedule with the East Coast.

Lisa Hughes, who has children at Coal Creek Elementary and Louisville Middle and teaches in the Adams 12 School District, said it likely was more than 100 degrees in her daughter's small elementary classroom in August.

"I can guarantee she learned nothing for the first week or two," she said. "That extra week makes a difference. It's at least slowly cooling off."

For others, the priority was starting earlier in August so students take finals before winter break, allowing them to relax with family instead of hitting the books over the holidays. Several parents said their students already are stressed and drowning in homework.

"Students need more downtime," said Cristy Harland, who has children at Eisenhower Elementary and Fairview High.

Three options

The calendar task force -- which includes district administrators, a principal representative, a teachers union representative and a district Parent Council representative -- developed the three options based on feedback from a districtwide survey taken in the fall.

The first option starts school Aug. 26 and 27, depending on grade. The semester ends before winter break, on Dec. 19, so that finals are before the break. But to end before winter break, the first semester is about 22 days shorter than the second semester. The last day of school is May 30.

At Thursday's meeting, that option was roundly criticized by parents and teachers, who said it's too unbalanced, especially for semester-long core classes like government.

"It's just not acceptable," Boulder High parent Lisa Cornell said.

The second option also starts Aug. 26 and 27, but ends the first semester about two weeks after winter break. The last day of school stays the same, May 30.

The third option starts school Sept. 3 and 4, depending on grade, and the first semester ends after winter break. The last day of school is June 6.

No air conditioning

The school district's current calendar was configured about five years ago to start in mid-August at the urging of secondary students and parents unhappy that finals were after winter break. Boulder Valley's start date also is in line with most other districts in the Denver metro area.

But last school year, parents and teachers complained that classrooms were unbearable during an August heat wave. Twenty-four Boulder Valley elementary schools have no air conditioning in classrooms, and eight of those schools have no air conditioning at all.

In the district's most recent school construction program, adding air conditioning generally wasn't included because it was too expensive.

Based on feedback from community meetings and an online calendar survey, the calendar committee plans to develop one option to present to the school board.

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